McKinnis Family Alaska

~Wednesday, March 2, 2011~

A Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!-

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each tomorrow

Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust not Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act, - act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~

Recently things at the house are going backward instead of progressing. The stairs never rested on the floor properly and so the workers returned to try to position them, as the person who made them suggested.

This required the stairs to be supported once again by straps, for the bolts to be removed, and the top of the stairs to be pried apart where they had been glued.

Roger wielded the Sawzall.

However, after all of that time and effort, the stairs were extremely tilted as shown in the above photo and they still did not rest on the floor correctly, so they were returned for the present to their former postition.

So now the stairs remain supported by beams and straps (the wooden stair nose was destroyed in the process) and things look more unfinished around here than they did. I became very discouraged and frustrated about the negative changes, knowing there were no plans for the future to make things better. After having a very difficult day on Monday and complaining to my mother she chided me for not being thankful, tweaked my perspective, and corrected my attitude. Thanks, Mom!